CNN
—

Jannik Sinner claimed his seventh title of the season with a straight-sets win over Novak Djokovic in the final of the Shanghai Masters on Sunday.

The Italian, who had already secured first place in the world rankings at the end of the year with his semi-final victory over Tomas Machac, defeated Djokovic 7:6 (4), 6:3 and thus won the fourth Masters 1000 title of his career and the third in 2024.

Djokovic was aiming to become only the third man in history to win 100 Tour titles after Jimmy Connors and Roger Federer, but was never able to overcome Sinner’s strong serves as the Italian did not face a single break point in the competition.

According to the ATP, Sinner’s seven titles are the most won by a player in a single season since Andy Murray won nine in 2016.

“It was of course a very tough game, playing against Novak is one of the biggest challenges we have,” Sinner said after the game, according to ATP. “I am very happy with how I handled the situation.

“He served great in the first set, I couldn’t break him. I played a really good tiebreak which gave me the confidence to start the second set well.

“It is difficult to reveal a secret about (Djokovic) because he has no weaknesses. You have to try to take advantage of the small chances he gives you, but there aren’t many during the game. He is a legend of our sport, it is very difficult to play against him, so I am very happy.”

Sinner’s victory brings his career head-to-head with Djokovic to 4-4 and, according to tennis.com, the 23-year-old is the first player since Rafael Nadal in 2013 to beat the Serb three times in a row.

Sunday’s defeat was the first of his career for Djokovic in the final of the Shanghai Masters after he previously posted a perfect record of 4-0.

The 37-year-old overcame what he described as injury problems in both the quarter-finals and semi-finals but did not appear to be affected against Sinner.

In his post-match interview, Djokovic pointed out that Roger Federer was in the stands to huge cheers from the crowd and said it was the first time he had played in front of the Swiss.

“I had extra pressure,” he joked.

The Paris Masters, which begins on October 28, is the final Masters event of the season before the world’s top eight travel to the ATP Finals in Turin, Italy in November.